Steve McQueen

Last night, Brad Pitt made up for keeping fans guessing whether he’d show at the TIFF red carpet for 12 Years a Slave. When the actor emerged from his car, shorn clean of the grizzly, silvering beard he sports in the film, he walked the entire block opposite the Princess of Wales Theatre, signing autographs and taking pictures before his handlers finally had to peel him away. (Fellow castmember Michael Fassbender shot down the carpet—perhaps hoping to avoid teasing about his bump-and-grind dance moves at Soho House the night before?)

Single tickets for the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival go on sale this Sunday, September 1. The schedule, packed with hundreds of films, can make choosing what to see a rather daunting task. The solution: our guide to the 50 most talked-about movies at the festival this year, in which we scrutinize the advance hype (and the buzz from Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and Venice) to separate the must-sees from the flicks that only a mother could love.

At last year’s festival, Steve McQueen’s Shame taught us that there’s nothing funny about sex addiction, grinding Michael Fassbender through a blue-hued nightmare of compulsion and coital anguish. Stuart Blumberg’s Thanks for Sharing takes a different tack, approaching sex addiction with humour—so it was fitting that the film’s cast and crew were more smiles than sweaty palms on the red carpet at the Ryerson Theatre last night. Stars Mark Ruffalo, Tim Robbins, Patrick Fugit and Gwyneth Paltrow (fresh off a plane from Los Angeles and gorgeous in a Tom Ford dress) played nice for the cameras and howling fans. Writer/director Blumber and Thanks for Sharing executive producer Edward Norton also affably made the rounds. Our only complaint? Robbins joined the tieless brigade taking over TIFF 2012. Come on guys, would it kill you to dress up a little?

The Triumph Thruxton is a screaming mass of curves and chrome and undeniable retro cool—the amped-up automotive equivalent of a straight razor shave. It looks like the famous café racers of the 1960s, a direct descendant of the kind James Dean and Steve McQueen rode (or at least straddled for photo ops). And while it looks great, its styling cues—skinny wheels, low-rise handlebars, minimalist body—are built for speed. The 865cc eight-valve DOHC parallel twin engine is big and loud and capable of taking you from Dark Horse to Dark Horse in unheard-of time. Then again, this bike will also elicit lustful stares parked in front of said cafés on a sunny afternoon. Riding it is just a bonus. $10,799. Ride Motorcycles Toronto, 7730 Islington Ave., 905-851-8000.

TIFF 2011 has been packed full of stars, red carpets, exclusive parties, and various quips and jokes, and to celebrate the many achievements of this year’s festival, we present to you a yearbook for the TIFF class of 2011: Keira Knightley, Ryan Gosling, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Steve McQueen, Sarah Silverman, Seth Rogen, Whit Stillman, Jennifer Garner and Johnny Rotten. Find out what they had to say, and who was “voted” most likely to be beautiful forever in our just-arrived-from-the-printer class album.

Another tip from the Spoke Club’s cultural curator: Steve McQueen, director of the Michael Fassbender/Carey Mulligan pic Shame, dined at the King West club with TIFF co-director Cameron Bailey last night.

Find this story on our Star Spotting Map, where we plot the locations of celebrities spotted around Toronto.